Customer Reviews

Mosquitoes (Picador Books)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While I didn't like this novel quite as much as Soldier's Pay, Faulkner's first novel, it was consistently entertaining with many superbly crafted moments. A middle-aged, dowdy matron of the arts invites a group of intellectuals/artists (e.g., a writer, a poet, a sculptor) and assorted other hangers-on for a disastrous (at least for the matron) cruise on an inland waterway in the Deep South. Also on the cruise are the matron's highly independent, idiosyncratic niece and nephew, other friends of the matron, various crew members, and a young couple who were just passing by when the boat was leaving port. The intellectuals spend most of their time drinking heavily and engaging in hard-to-follow intellectual banter, while lusting over the two alluring, attractive, very different young women on board. When the boat breaks down because the nephew steals an important part of the engine in order to complete an invention on which he's working, the beautiful, boy-like, ultra-quirky niece and a handsome steward leave the boat without telling anyone and get lost in the swampy, mosquito-infested, steaming lowlands, trying to make their way to a town that is much farther away than they think. This was the most serious and by far the most compelling subplot in the novel to me, and it runs quite a few pages. Extremely atmospheric and very humorous, the book provided me with an enchanting reading experience, albeit most of the characters were not very admirable people and one may wonder exactly what the point of the exercise was after completing it.

This was not a bad not a bad book. I had to say that initially. For some other authors, this book could have been their masterpiece. The problem though, is that this is a Faulkner book. Faulkner reinvented the use of the English language in all the Yoknapatawpha books. The problem is that when you compare something as compicated as a Yoknapatawpha novel to anything else, it has to fall short. The plots of other Faulkner books are so dense and full of sybolism. Mosquitoes is not dense. It has a very mundane story about people on a boat. This, like other Faulkner novels revolves around the nature of human beings and their interactions. This novel is a more dialectical one in comparison to some of he other novels of his. We do not have the dark humor here that there is in a novel such as AsI Lay.... The epilogue redeems the novel with some of the dense writingthat Faulkner is notorious for. Read this after you read several other Faulkner novels.

Mosquitoes is not what one would expect of Faulkner, which should not diminish one's enjoyment of the story. It is humorous and satirical. Absent Faulkner's typical familial, historical, and cultural baggage, his characters in Mosquitoes still agonize, which makes them interesting. Let Faulkner surprise you. Enjoy the characters he gives us here and their comedic byplay. Absorb what he has to say about art and writing, in particular. You won't get it anywhere else. Try not to compare Mosquitoes to his other work; it is what it is, a slow boat loaded with pleasure.

Not the easiest book that I have ever read, but enjoyable nevertheless. Mrs Maurier invites a number of artistic New Orleans folk to join her and some others on a cruise on her private yacht. Thus confined, numerous conversations, many of an elevated nature, occur along with much flirtation. Serious conversations in which the author explores the meaning of art are interspersed with sensuous descriptions of frustrated amorous adventures. Though not an easy read, it makes me want to read more of Faulkner's novels.

See also: Aliwal

I know, Faulkner is a bit... boring to read at times, but this book is an exception! Of course, it is his very first and I think by far his best.

This novel provided me both catharsis and at the same time joy for being the introvert that I am. It deals with people interacting with other people, as sometimes happens, and it does it well. Not all are alike, some aren't even themselves, but great writing like this here is, well, helps with... understanding some of the goings-on both within and without our bodies. We all have feelings and we all have confliction and we all move about in society so... one could do worse than this book if one is looking for, well, a novel dealing with those things. I like it very much.

A deep and continuous source. Reflects the popular misconception of what it means to live the highly creative life of an artist. Title refers to Confucious quote that intellectual mosquitoes get their lives by sucking others ideas.

play for mosquitoes and everyone in between a mosquito my libido